Newsweek Cover: ‘How Scared Should You Be?’

The U.S. Department of Energy will test an early warning system for toxic chemicals in subway systems, and detectors have already been secretly installed in a Washington D.C. Metro station, Newsweek has learned, though nationwide implementation is years away. The DoE is also launching a project to install biodetectors in stadiums, convention halls and other large areas, all part of a multi-billion dollar effort to thwart biological and chemical attacks, ranging from assistance to local governments in planning for an attack to disease surveillance systems.

In another development, an FBI official tells Newsweek that operatives of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network have tried to obtain anthrax and botulinum toxin in Czechoslovakia. Dozens of rabbits and dogs have been found fatally poisoned near bin Laden’s training camps, according to a foreign intelligence agency.